The term “electro-optic” as applied to a material or a display, is used herein in its conventional meaning in the imaging art to refer to a material having first and second display states differing in at least one optical property, the material being changed from its first to its second display state by application of an electric field to the material. Although the optical property is typically color perceptible to the human eye, it may be another optical property, such as optical transmission, reflectance, luminescence or, in the case of displays intended for machine reading, pseudo-color in the sense of a change in reflectance of electromagnetic wavelengths outside the visible range.
The term “gray state” is used herein in its conventional meaning in the imaging art to refer to a state intermediate two extreme optical states of a pixel, and does not necessarily imply a black-white transition between these two extreme states. For example, several of the patents and published applications referred to below describe electrophoretic displays in which the extreme states are white and deep blue, so that an intermediate “gray state” would actually be pale blue. Indeed, as already mentioned the transition between the two extreme states may not be a color change at all.
The terms “bistable” and “bistability” are used herein in their conventional meaning in the imaging art to refer to displays comprising display elements having first and second display states differing in at least one optical property, and such that after any given element has been driven, by means of an addressing pulse of finite duration, to assume either its first or second display state, after the addressing pulse has terminated, that state will persist for at least several times, for example at least four times, the minimum duration of the addressing pulse required to change the state of the display element. It is shown in published U.S. Patent Application No. 2002/0180687 that some particle-based electrophoretic displays capable of gray scale are stable not only in their extreme black and white states but also in their intermediate gray states, and the same is true of some other types of electro-optic displays. This type of display is properly called “multi-stable” rather than bistable, although for convenience the term “bistable” may be used herein to cover both bistable and multi-stable displays.
The term “impulse” is used herein in its conventional meaning in the imaging art of the integral of voltage with respect to time. However, some bistable electro-optic media act as charge transducers, and with such media an alternative definition of impulse, namely the integral of current over time (which is equal to the total charge applied) may be used. The appropriate definition of impulse should be used, depending on whether the medium acts as a voltage-time impulse transducer or a charge impulse transducer.
Several types of electro-optic displays are known. One type of electro-optic display is a rotating bichromal member type as described, for example, in U.S. Pat. Nos. 5,808,783; 5,777,782; 5,760,761; 6,054,071 6,055,091; 6,097,531; 6,128,124; 6,137,467; and 6,147,791 (although this type of display is often referred to as a “rotating bichromal ball” display, the term “rotating bichromal member” is preferred as more accurate since in some of the patents mentioned above the rotating members are not spherical). Such a display uses a large number of small bodies (typically spherical or cylindrical) which have two or more sections with differing optical characteristics, and an internal dipole. These bodies are suspended within liquid-filled vacuoles within a matrix, the vacuoles being filled with liquid so that the bodies are free to rotate. The appearance of the display is changed to applying an electric field thereto, thus rotating the bodies to various positions and varying which of the sections of the bodies is seen through a viewing surface. This type of electro-optic medium is typically bistable.
Another type of electro-optic display uses an electrochromic medium, for example an electrochromic medium in the form of a nanochromic film comprising an electrode formed at least in part from a semi-conducting metal oxide and a plurality of dye molecules capable of reversible color change attached to the electrode; see, for example O'Regan, B., et al., Nature 1991, 353, 737; and Wood, D., Information Display, 18(3), 24 (March 2002). See also Bach, U., et al., Adv. Mater., 2002, 14(11), 845. Nanochromic films of this type are also described, for example, in U.S. Pat. Nos. 6,301,038; 6,870.657; and 6,950,220. This type of medium is also typically bistable.
Another type of electro-optic display, which has been the subject of intense research and development for a number of years, is the particle-based electrophoretic display, in which a plurality of charged particles move through a fluid under the influence of an electric field. Electrophoretic displays can have attributes of good brightness and contrast, wide viewing angles, state bistability, and low power consumption when compared with liquid crystal displays. Nevertheless, problems with the long-term image quality of these displays have prevented their widespread usage. For example, particles that make up electrophoretic displays tend to settle, resulting in inadequate service-life for these displays.
As noted above, electrophoretic media require the presence of a fluid. In most prior art electrophoretic media, this fluid is a liquid, but electrophoretic media can be produced using gaseous fluids; see, for example, Kitamura, T., et al., “Electrical toner movement for electronic paper-like display”, IDW Japan, 2001, Paper HCS1-1, and Yamaguchi, Y., et al., “Toner display using insulative particles charged triboelectrically”, IDW Japan, 2001, Paper AMD4-4). See also U.S. Patent Publication No. 2005/0001810; European Patent Applications 1,462,847; 1,482,354; 1,484,635; 1,500,971; 1,501,194; 1,536,271; 1,542,067; 1,577,702; 1,577,703; and 1,598,694; and International Applications WO 2004/090626; WO 2004/079442; and WO 2004/001498. Such gas-based electrophoretic media appear to be susceptible to the same types of problems due to particle settling as liquid-based electrophoretic media, when the media are used in an orientation which permits such settling, for example in a sign where the medium is disposed in a vertical plane. Indeed, particle settling appears to be a more serious problem in gas-based electrophoretic media than in liquid-based ones, since the lower viscosity of gaseous suspending fluids as compared with liquid ones allows more rapid settling of the electrophoretic particles.
Numerous patents and applications assigned to or in the names of the Massachusetts Institute of Technology (MIT) and E Ink Corporation have recently been published describing encapsulated electrophoretic media. Such encapsulated media comprise numerous small capsules, each of which itself comprises an internal phase containing electrophoretically-mobile particles suspended in a liquid suspending medium, and a capsule wall surrounding the internal phase. Typically, the capsules are themselves held within a polymeric binder to form a coherent layer positioned between two electrodes. Encapsulated media of this type are described, for example, in U.S. Pat. Nos. 5,930,026; 5,961,804; 6,017,584; 6,067,185; 6,118,426; 6,120,588; 6,120,839; 6,124,851; 6,130,773; 6,130,774; 6,172,798; 6,177,921; 6,232,950; 6,249,271; 6,252,564; 6,262,706; 6,262,833; 6,300,932; 6,312,304; 6,312,971; 6,323,989; 6,327,072; 6,376,828; 6,377,387; 6,392,785; 6,392,786; 6,413,790; 6,422,687; 6,445,374; 6,445,489; 6,459,418; 6,473,072; 6,480,182; 6,498,114; 6,504,524; 6,506,438; 6,512,354; 6,515,649; 6,518,949; 6,521,489; 6,531,997; 6,535,197; 6,538,801; 6,545,291; 6,580,545; 6,639,578; 6,652,075; 6,657,772; 6,664,944; 6,680,725; 6,683,333; 6,704,133; 6,710,540; 6,721,083; 6,724,519; 6,727,881; 6,738,050; 6,750,473; 6,753,999; 6,816,147; 6,819,471; 6,822,782; 6,825,068; 6,825,829; 6,825,970; 6,831,769; 6,839,158; 6,842,167; 6,842,279; 6,842,657; 6,864,875; 6,865,010; 6,866,760; 6,870,661; 6,900,851; 6,922,276; 6,950,200; 6,958,848; 6,967,640; 6,982,178; 6,987,603; 6,995,550; 7,002,728; 7,012,600; 7,012,735; 7,023,420; 7,030,412; 7,030,854; 7,034,783; 7,038,655; 7,061,663; 7,071,913; 7,075,502; 7,075,703; 7,079,305; 7,106,296; 7,109,968; 7,110,163; 7,110,164; 7,116,318; 7,116,466; 7,119,759; 7,119,772; 7,148,128; 7,167,155; 7,170,670; 7,173,752; 7,176,880; and 7,180,649; and U.S. Patent Applications Publication Nos. 2002/0060321; 2002/0090980; 2003/0011560; 2003/0102858; 2003/0151702; 2003/0222315; 2004/0014265; 2004/0075634; 2004/0094422; 2004/0105036; 2004/0112750; 2004/0119681; 2004/0136048; 2004/0155857; 2004/0180476; 2004/0190114; 2004/0196215; 2004/0226820; 2004/0257635; 2004/0263947; 2005/0000813; 2005/0007336; 2005/0012980; 2005/0017944; 2005/0018273; 2005/0024353; 2005/0062714; 2005/0067656; 2005/0078099; 2005/0099672; 2005/0122284; 2005/0122306; 2005/0122563; 2005/0134554; 2005/0146774; 2005/0151709; 2005/0152018; 2005/0152022; 2005/0156340; 2005/0168799; 2005/0179642; 2005/0190137; 2005/0212747; 2005/0213191; 2005/0219184; 2005/0253777; 2005/0270261; 2005/0280626; 2006/0007527; 2006/0024437; 2006/0038772; 2006/0139308; 2006/0139310; 2006/0139311; 2006/0176267; 2006/0181492; 2006/0181504; 2006/0194619; 2006/0197736; 2006/0197737; 2006/0197738; 2006/0198014; 2006/0202949; and 2006/0209388; and International Applications Publication Nos. WO 00/38000; WO 00/36560; WO 00/67110; and WO 01/07961; and European Patents Nos. 1,099,207 B1; and 1,145,072 B1.
Many of the aforementioned patents and applications recognize that the walls surrounding the discrete microcapsules in an encapsulated electrophoretic medium could be replaced by a continuous phase, thus producing a so-called polymer-dispersed electrophoretic display, in which the electrophoretic medium comprises a plurality of discrete droplets of an electrophoretic fluid and a continuous phase of a polymeric material, and that the discrete droplets of electrophoretic fluid within such a polymer-dispersed electrophoretic display may be regarded as capsules or microcapsules even though no discrete capsule membrane is associated with each individual droplet; see for example, the aforementioned U.S. Pat. No. 6,866,760. Accordingly, for purposes of the present application, such polymer-dispersed electrophoretic media are regarded as sub-species of encapsulated electrophoretic media.
A related type of electrophoretic display is a so-called “microcell electrophoretic display”. In a microcell electrophoretic display, the charged particles and the fluid are not encapsulated within microcapsules but instead are retained within a plurality of cavities formed within a carrier medium, typically a polymeric film. See, for example, U.S. Pat. Nos. 6,672,921 and 6,788,449, both assigned to Sipix Imaging, Inc.
Although electrophoretic media are often opaque (since, for example, in many electrophoretic media, the particles substantially block transmission of visible light through the display) and operate in a reflective mode, many electrophoretic displays can be made to operate in a so-called “shutter mode” in which one display state is substantially opaque and one is light-transmissive. See, for example, the aforementioned U.S. Pat. Nos. 6,130,774 and 6,172,798, and U.S. Pat. Nos. 5,872,552; 6,144,361; 6,271,823; 6,225,971; and 6,184,856. Dielectrophoretic displays, which are similar to electrophoretic displays but rely upon variations in electric field strength, can operate in a similar mode; see U.S. Pat. No. 4,418,346. Other types of electro-optic displays may also be capable of operating in shutter mode.
An encapsulated electrophoretic display typically does not suffer from the clustering and settling failure mode of traditional electrophoretic devices and provides further advantages, such as the ability to print or coat the display on a wide variety of flexible and rigid substrates. (Use of the word “printing” is intended to include all forms of printing and coating, including, but without limitation: pre-metered coatings such as patch die coating, slot or extrusion coating, slide or cascade coating, curtain coating; roll coating such as knife over roll coating, forward and reverse roll coating; gravure coating; dip coating; spray coating; meniscus coating; spin coating; brush coating; air knife coating; silk screen printing processes; electrostatic printing processes; thermal printing processes; ink jet printing processes; and other similar techniques.) Thus, the resulting display can be flexible. Further, because the display medium can be printed (using a variety of methods), the display itself can be made inexpensively.
The bistable or multi-stable behavior of particle-based electrophoretic displays, and other electro-optic displays displaying similar behavior (such displays may hereinafter for convenience be referred to as “impulse driven displays”), is in marked contrast to that of conventional liquid crystal (“LC”) displays. Twisted nematic liquid crystals act are not bi- or multi-stable but act as voltage transducers, so that applying a given electric field to a pixel of such a display produces a specific gray level at the pixel, regardless of the gray level previously present at the pixel. Furthermore, LC displays are only driven in one direction (from non-transmissive or “dark” to transmissive or “light”), the reverse transition from a lighter state to a darker one being effected by reducing or eliminating the electric field. Finally, the gray level of a pixel of an LC display is not sensitive to the polarity of the electric field, only to its magnitude, and indeed for technical reasons commercial LC displays usually reverse the polarity of the driving field at frequent intervals. In contrast, bistable electro-optic displays act, to a first approximation, as impulse transducers, so that the final state of a pixel depends not only upon the electric field applied and the time for which this field is applied, but also upon the state of the pixel prior to the application of the electric field.
A method of controlling and applying well defined voltage impulses to an electro-optic medium is required to produce desired optical states in the medium. There are several ways of providing a particular voltage impulse, e.g., a particular ∫vdt value, to a display medium. Two common methods entail modulation of the length of a constant voltage pulse, and modulation of the amplitude of a constant length pulse.
Amplitude modulation methods are commonly employed because such methods can provide, for example, reduced power consumption and reduced controller complexity. When an insufficient range of impulse control is possible using only amplitude modulation, amplitude modulation can be combined with time modulation to produce a more precise modulation of the total impulse applied to a display medium.
To control amplitude modulation at the pixel level in an active matrix display, a column driver circuit is typically required to adjust the amplitude of the driver circuit's output based on display signal data received from a display controller. A row driver circuit sequentially selects each row of pixels, temporarily connecting a selected row of pixel electrodes to the column driver circuits. In this way, the voltage of applied to each pixel electrode in the display can be set once per scan by the column and row drivers.
A column driver circuit commonly includes a resistive digital-to-analog converter (R-DAC) system with output buffers and offset trimming. Although a DAC-based architecture has many benefits, it typically requires a large number of transistors for implementation. This can lead to two problems: 1) the implementation of the circuit can be complex with care required to insure proper functionality and accuracy; and 2) a large area of active circuit can be required, which can lead to higher cost (especially at higher voltages).
For example, a LCD having 256 gray levels may include a separate 256-level DAC for each column of display elements. Each DAC converts digital image data supplied to a column driver into a voltage to be applied to a pixel electrode. The cost of a large number of DACs in a high-resolution display may increase the manufacturing cost of a display.
Further, fabrication of an R-DAC-based design may require specialized process provisions, such as a floating polycrystalline silicon capacitor layer, to enable design features which improve accuracy. Specialized processes may reduce the number of vendors available with a suitable manufacturing capability and may increase final cost as well as the complexity and cost of designing the architecture.
Another aspect of the present invention relates to a method for addressing a bistable electro-optic medium which improves the appearance of the display as the display is being updated. Electro-optic displays are driven from an initial state to a final state by means of a waveform comprising a series of voltage pulses, which may include pulses of zero voltage. Each voltage pulse induces part of a transition from an initial gray level to a final gray level. The optical nature of the transition from one image to another is an important attribute of the display performance. Also, the time of a transition (here, referred to as the update time) is a second important attribute of the display performance. The update time of many electro-optic displays is sufficiently long (typically of the order of several hundred milliseconds) that a user can observe intermediate states of the display between the initial and final states. For example, the aforementioned U.S. Pat. No. 7,012,600 describes so-called “slide show” waveforms in which each pixel is driven from its initial gray level to one extreme optical state (for example, white), then to the opposite extreme optical state (for example, black) and finally to the desired final gray level; the “excursions” to the two extreme optical states may be repeated. Although such slide show waveforms can produce accurate gray levels in the final image, they have the disadvantage that if all the pixels of the display are driven simultaneously to white and then to black, the user sees at least one “flash” between the initial and final images on the display. Most users find such flashes distracting and annoying.
Another problem in updating bistable displays is that, in practice, because it normally necessary to use drivers with only a limited number of voltage levels, the greater the number of gray levels which have to be written, the greater the update time. For this reason, it has been suggested that when rapid updating of a display is desirable, for example when a user is entering text in a dialogue box, the display should make use of two discrete drive schemes (the term “drive scheme” being used herein to denote a collection of waveforms sufficient to effect all possible transitions between the desired gray levels), one drive scheme typically being a monochrome drive scheme with a short update time and the other a non-monochrome gray level drive scheme; see for example, the aforementioned U.S. Pat. No. 7,119,772. However, such a “double drive scheme” approach can give rise to additional problems. The gray levels of the monochrome drive scheme may not correspond exactly to gray levels of the non-monochrome gray level drive scheme and, in view of the need to consider such factors as DC balance (again, see the aforementioned U.S. Pat. No. 7,119,772), special arrangements may be needed when a given pixel of the display switches between the two drive schemes.
One aspect of the present invention relates to a method of driving a bistable display which reduces or eliminates flashing and produces a more pleasing transition for a user. The method also eliminates the problems associated with switching between different drive schemes.
A third aspect of the present invention relates to optimizing gray levels using drivers having only a limited number of voltage levels. As already indicated, it is normally necessary to drive bistable electro-optic displays using drivers capable of providing only a limited number of voltage levels, because drivers capable of applying large numbers of voltage levels are considerably more expensive. Such drivers are normally arranged to operate with a series of timing or clock pulses with the driver applying the same voltage to a pixel during the interval between successive clock pulses, i.e., a graph of applied voltage against time essentially consists of a series of rectangles with the time dimension of each rectangle being an integral multiple of a predetermined clock period. Since only a limited number of driving voltages are available, the impulses which can be applied to the pixel (these impulses being proportional to the areas of the aforementioned rectangles) are quantized, and it may be difficult to combine such quantized impulses to reproduce accurately the impulse needed for a particular gray level transition, and there may be some inaccuracy in the final gray level resulting from the transition.
Such inaccuracy in final gray level can give rise to a “areal ghosting” problem. “Areal ghosting” refers to a phenomenon whereby, when a display bearing a first image is rewritten to display a second image, a vague “ghost” of the first image can be seen in the second image. One cause of such ghost images is inaccuracy in gray levels during the rewriting of the display. For example, consider a situation where a first image comprises a white shape on a black background, whereas the second image comprises a uniform field at an intermediate gray level. If, because of the limitations of the drivers and waveforms employed, the actual gray level resulting from the rewriting of the originally white pixels to the intermediate gray level differs visibly from the actual gray level resulting from the rewriting of the originally black pixels to the intermediate gray level, a “ghost” of the originally white shape will be visible in the second image. (Note that it does not matter whether it is the originally white pixels or the originally black pixels which are darker in the second image, a ghost image will still be visible; the ghost image may be similar to or an inverse of the first image.) Such ghost images are frequently objectionable to users of electro-optic displays, and the third aspect of the present invention seeks to reduce or eliminate such ghost effects.